1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation assisting device, an image formation assisting method, and an image formation assisting system, and, for example, to an image formation assisting device, an image formation assisting method, and an image formation assisting system for outputting data to an image forming apparatus having a so-called printing function of forming an image on a recording medium, such as a color copier, a facsimile, a printer, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional printing (for example, offset printing), intermediate products, for example, paper prints (photographic paper) such as photo compositions, layout paper, negative halftones, positive halftones, and PS plates (press plates) are produced, and printing and bookbinding are performed by using these intermediate products. In recent years, DTP (Desktop Publishing/Prepress) has come into widespread use and “direct printing” or “on-demand printing” of printing matter directly from DTP data has been known. In the DTP, a processing including steps of: processing a page layout on a computer to produce printing data; forming the printing data on photographic paper, a platemaking film, or the like; producing a press plate on the basis of the photographic paper or the platemaking film; and printing the press plate on the printing paper, has become widespread. Further, a CTP (Computer To Plate) process for forming a press plate directly by using electronic data without producing the intermediate products is also receiving attention. An image forming apparatus having a printing function such as a printer or copier has been known as an apparatus to be used for a printing processing like this. Image forming apparatuses of recent years have improved image quality and are capable of color printing and, for example, a color printer apparatus using an electronic photographic process (xerography) can form images of high quality at high speeds. This image forming apparatus can receive printing data and output printed matter without producing a press plate or the like.
FIGS. 13A and 13B are structural views of an image forming system in the related art. As can be seen from a general structural view shown in FIG. 13A, the image forming system is constructed of an image forming apparatus 11 and a DFE (Digital Front End) processor that supplies the image forming apparatus 11 with printing data and instructs it to print the data. Further, FIG. 13B shows the flow of data.
The DFE processor has a drawing function and a printer controller (printing control device) function and, for example, receives printing data described in a page description language (PDL) in succession from a client terminal, converts this printing data into a raster image (RIP: raster image processing), further sends image data subjected to the RIP and printing control information (job ticket) such as the number of sheets to be printed and paper size to the image forming apparatus 11, controls the print engine and the paper feed system of the image forming apparatus 11, and makes the image forming apparatus 11 perform a printing processing. That is, the printing action of the image forming apparatus 11 is controlled by the printer controller of the DFE processor. As for the printing data, four colors (Y, M, C, K) including a combination of three colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C), which are basic colors for color printing, and black (K) are sent to the image forming apparatus 11.
The image forming apparatus 11 records images on printing paper by using an electrophotographic process and includes an IOT (Image Output Terminal) module 12, a feed module (FM: paper feed module) 5 connected to the IOT module 12, an output module 17, and a user interface unit 18 that includes a touch panel and the like and supports the inputting of various kinds of data. The IOT module 12 has a toner supply section 22 mounted with a toner cartridge 24 for the colors of YMCK and an IOT core section 20. The IOT core section 20 is organized into a so-called tandem configuration in which print engines (printing units) 30, each having an optical scanning unit and a photoconductive drum and the like, are arranged for respective colors and in a line in the direction in which a belt is rotated and is provided with an electric control system storage section 39 for storing an electric circuit for controlling the print engines 30 and the like. In the IOT core section 20, a toner image on the photoconductive drum is transferred to an intermediate transfer belt 43 (primary transfer), and then the toner image is again transferred to printing paper (secondary transfer), whereby the toner images of respective colors of YMCK are transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 43 in a superimposed manner. The image (toner image) transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 43 is transferred to the printing paper fed from the feed module 15 at a predetermined timing and is fused and fixed to the printing paper by a fuser 70. Thereafter, the paper is delivered to the outside of the apparatus 11 via a paper delivery unit 72. Further, at the time of double-sided printing, printing paper printed on one side is temporarily stored in a paper delivery tray (stacker) 74, then pulled out of the paper delivery tray 74, turned over by a turn-over transport path 49, and then again fed to the IOT core section 20.
In this system, to realize a request for increasing the performance and the speed of an image forming processing (printing processing) (for example, color printing at 100 to 200 sheets/min or more), it is also necessary to increase the performance and the speed of the RIP and the printer controller of a printing control section for an image recording section at an output side.
However, the DFE processor performs not only the RIP for the PDL data from the client terminal but also additional processings, such as page rearrangement according to a printing job (rearrangement of ascending order/descending order, determination of order of pages to be processed at the time of double-sided printing, position shifting in accordance with a finisher, and the like), data conversion in accordance with the processing characteristics at the output side such as those of the print engine and the fuser (for example, correction of gray balance and out-of-register colors), and the like. For this reason, a single-purpose and independent device configuration has been adopted in which the DFE processor and the image forming apparatus 11 are connected to each other by a specially designed communications protocol.
In contrast to this, in the CTP method, the RIP described above is performed by the DFE processor. At this time, since a large-size press plate of about 1 m is usually used in the CTP method, the allocation of images on a page is performed to produce image data including a plurality of images allocated on a page. Then, a press plate is formed by using the image data and is printed on the sheets of paper, and then a post-processing such as cutting and the like is performed.
The image data obtained by performing the RIP for such a CTP method is a large size of about 1 m, whereas the maximum size of image data of the above-described image forming system such as on-demand printing is about 19 inches. Hence, at the present time, the image data for the CTP method can not be used in conjunction with the image data for the on-demand printing.